mend

Craft Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Mend means to repair something broken or damaged; in poetry, it can suggest healing, restoration, or the piecing together of fragments.

Detailed Definition
In literal craft, mend is the act of fixing tears or faults. In poetry, it may refer to the repair of a life, a relationship, or a text through language. It fits craft language because it highlights restoration as a creative act.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet may describe mending a torn garment as a metaphor for repairing a broken relationship; Kintsugi-inspired poems use mended pottery, gilded at its cracks, as metaphor for beauty found in brokenness; A poem about grief might describe the impossibility of mending what death has taken; Mending fences appears as a common idiom explored literally and figuratively in pastoral poetry; A poet describing family reconciliation might use mending torn photographs as a central image; Mended nets in fishing communities can symbolize resilience and continued labor despite loss.
Additional Notes
Mend emphasizes repair and restoration, often used in poems about healing, reconciliation, or the piecing together of what has been broken; the term carries a gentler, more hopeful connotation than fix or repair, and instructors might explore how kintsugi-inspired imagery, in which mended pottery is gilded at its cracks, has become an increasingly popular metaphor in contemporary poetry for finding beauty and meaning in brokenness rather than concealing it.
Also Known As
repair fix patch darn
Skip to main content